Senior/U20 Events Report 19th February 2026

Despite the weather being somewhat challenging, our athletes have been training hard and delivering some great results as we move into winter championships season – it is safe to say that Kilmarnock has been well represented on a number of podiums over the last few weeks!

We start this week’s report with a trip to the Emirates for the pre-EAP meet held on Saturday the 31st of January.  On the short track, Ally Mitchell was in action for 3rd place in his 60m race with a SB of 7.12s, whilst in the 800m Laura Haggarty was 2nd in 2:17.12 (SB).   A few days later, Laura was back in action – this time in London at Lee Valley for the Ayo Falola Dream Mile meet on Wednesday the 4th to try and reclaim her British record that she originally set at this meeting in 2025.  A gutsy front running performance took the win in some style in 5:04.54, just a couple of seconds outside the record.  

Saturday the 7th of February saw a number of our senior/U20 athletes competing at the Scottish Student Athletics Indoor Champs at the Emirates.  In the field events Sara Barbour took the win in the women’s PV with a SB of 3.70m, while Isla Raeburn was 3rd in the long jump with a new PB of 5.32m and then also claiming bronze in the shot with 9.84m – great start to the season Isla!  Logan Mitchell was also in action in the shot, claiming a convincing victory by over 2m to record 13.77m.  On the track, Ally Mitchell took the Q in his heat with a win in 7.12, and in the 400m heats, Jordan Phillips took the win with 50.93.  In the afternoon session, Ally once again progressed with a 2nd place in the semi-final in 7.10s, before taking the bronze in the final in 7.10 again – solid running Ally!  In the 400m final, Jordan was 4th in 50.28s.  In the evening session, Eilidh Ballantyne was 5th in the 3000m with 11:19.38.

Saturday the 7th was also a big day for Jonathon Downey as he represented Scotland as a senior in the London Cross Challenge – this is a huge achievement for this young athlete and great to see the club represented at such a high level.  The course is notorious for hills and mud, and it certainly had plenty of the latter in abundance on the day.   Cold and wet conditions made the going treacherous underfoot, but despite some slips Jonathon still finished an excellent 35th overall in 36:52 – great running! 

On the Sunday, Rhian Mitchell was competing at the English Athletics U20 champs at Sheffield where he took the title with a 16.14m effort – great to see this young athlete step up into the U20 category with such a confident performance. 

A little closer to home, it was the turn of our masters athletes to compete for championship medals at the Emirates in the 4J Scottish Athletics Indoor Masters Championships.  On the short track, Douglas Dickson had a strong season opener for 5th place in the 60m in 8.93s.  Douglas was then in action later in the day where he was 3rd in his 200m heat in 29.53s.  In the 800m, Laura Haggarty had a solo effort at the front of the field to return 2:17.27 – mere fractions from her PB – to take the gold medal.  Moving onto the 1500m, Ross Granger took V40 bronze with a new PB of 4:42.79, whilst Mark Alexander was 5th in a very competitive V45 race with a PB of 4:49.22.  Meanwhile in the field events, Alex McIntosh claimed bronze in the M65 shot with an 8.68m effort.

Sunday the 15th was the Ayrshire Open indoor at Riverside.  Ally Mitchell had a strong run to finish top of the table in the 60m events with 7.13s, and Douglas Dickson ran 9.00 to finish 1st V55.

We now look forward to a number of events across the road, track and country over the next couple of weeks before our winter league winners are announced. We have a number of athletes competing at National XC at Falkirk this weekend – best of luck to all!  The following weekend will be the Allan Scally relays, teams will be sorted out next week and there is still the possibility of a space or two available if anyone is looking for a run last minute.  After the Scallys the winners of the Winter Leagues will be announced, with the awards presented alongside the Summer prizes at the awards night on Friday the 13th of March.  There are not many tickets left, so get booked up ASAP if you are intending to come along!

Looking even further forward, we are now giving consideration to the Summer League races.  Whilst no firm decisions have yet been made, the early season local races (Ron’s 5k, Troon 10k etc WILL be included so be aware of opening dates if you are planning a league campaign this summer.  We will most likely follow a similar format to last year, but if anyone has any suggestions please let us know.